Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut DLC Discussion

Bioware has announced an Extended Cut to the Ending for Mass Effect 3 in direct response to the overwhelming amount of fan disappointment. I hate to be the one to say it, buy why do an Extended Cut if you are just going to expand on the ending we didnt like? I guess I should be grateful for it being free and providing more closure and explanation.I’m happy we pushed for it and ultimately won.

BioWare co-founder Ray Muyzka said the following regarding the Extended Cut:

““We are all incredibly proud of Mass Effect 3 and the work done by Casey Hudson and team. Since launch, we have had time to listen to the feedback from our most passionate fans and we are responding. With the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team’s artistic vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect universe.”” -Ray Muyzka

Kotaku was able to clarify what is being offered even further. The Extended Cut will NOT introduce a different ending or add more endings instead it will provide more clarity and context for what the original ending offered:

““Are there going to be more/different endings or ending DLCs in the future?
“Much of the focus of the Extended Cut is to expand on the variety of consequences of player choices and degrees of success,” the spokesperson said, “so, with the new content, the player’s choices should result in a much more varied experience.”” -Bioware

Finally, Bioware confirmed that work on this DLC will delay other DLC content for ME3 that was already being made:

““The overall development of other DLC will shift,” the spokesperson told us, “but several projects are underway and in various stages of development.”” -Bioware

What do you think of the Extended Cut DLC? The content will be offered for Free until April 2014 and through Origin for PC Gamers.

Considering what the endings were before, I guess I’m happy enough with the Extended Cut DLC. It did offer closure and made the choices seem to matter more than what color explosion you got. I was disappointed that the indoctrination theory was disproved just so the game could remain open ended, but the developers(And EA) could have worked it so that the indoctrination theory proves to be correct, but still leaves the door open for ME4.

It seemed that no matter what happened, they planned on Shepard ending up dead or otherwise no longer able to serve, so they could have just worked in indoctrination, maybe a big-ass final show-down with Harbinger, shown the war assets come into play, ect ect, and still leave it open for the saga to continue… And personally, I think it would have been awesome if they did a turn-based strategy “mini-game” for the space battle, or allowed us to take control of the Normandy and fly through the Reapers, blasting them to hell. But for whatever reason, they saw this as the only way to go… So it puzzles me why, for companies that showed such creativity and open-mindedness in the creation of this franchise, that they’d become so narrow of vision in writing up the ending of this particular story.

It was a satisfactory move but the sour taste of being screwed over just so they can keep the series open ended because they are too lazy to take the story in a new direction…that sour taste remains. The extra effort here is appreciated but it just makes me that much more queasy about Dead Space 3 and as much as I love the addicting gameplay of my fav NHL series I find myself really not wanting to support EA in any way shape or form. Activision and capcom are both on my “Buy used only” list. EA will be joining them.